Earlier I wrote a bit about the word 'domesticated' and how often summary words serve to obscure and hide sometimes complex and weighty phenomena. Wild is also such a word especially when applied to our animal relatives.
According to the Mirriam-Webster dictionary site, wild means:
"1a : living in a state of nature and not ordinarily tame or domesticated <wild ducks>
b (1) : growing or produced without human aid or care <wild honey> (2) : related to or resembling a corresponding cultivated or domesticated organism
c : of or relating to wild organisms <the wild state>
2a : not inhabited or cultivated <wild land>
b : not amenable to human habitation or cultivation; also : desolate
3a (1) : not subject to restraint or regulation : uncontrolled; also : unruly (2) : emotionally overcome <wild with grief>; also : passionately eager or enthusiastic <was wild to own a toy train — J. C. Furnas>
b : marked by turbulent agitation : stormy <a wild night>
c : going beyond normal or conventional bounds : fantastic <wild ideas>; also : sensational
d : indicative of strong passion, desire, or emotion <a wild gleam of delight in his eyes — Irish Digest>
4: uncivilized, barbaric...."
Hmmm, the first entry about growing or existing without human care or aid is actually what the phrase "wild animal" should mean. Actually, if we look at the term wild and consider that "domesticated" essentially means dependent on humans, then "wild" actually means independent...the wild ones don't need humans. Probably a much more appropriate and meaningful way to talk about animals viz-a-viz humans would be to term them as being either dependent or independent.
But that isn't what we do. First of all, notice, we often (almost invariably) frame our consideration and thinking about other animals by primarily referencing them re humans...that is either wild or domestic. We can't use either of those terms without dragging ourselves into the mix because saying wild actually means independent of humans and saying domestic actually means dependent on humans.
But, the subtle baggage that is tacked onto wild are the various other meanings that are vaguely or specifically negative. Notice wild also means uncontrolled, agitated, barbaric, desolate. When we think about or reference another animal with the adjective "wild"...these additional shades of meaning often get covertly or overtly dragged into the mix.
So...I am going to, henceforth, try to think about other animals in different terms. Then it is easily noted that an animal is...at least insofar as dealing with humans...either independent or dependent. Because the fact is that those animals that don't depend on us to make their way on this planet and to live their own lives in their own way...why should we burden that independence with any shadings of negativity?
They, like us, have the skills and capabilities to live on this planet as autonomous beings...they don't need us for anything. We are unnecessary to their existence (in fact our principal role in their lives is as a threat to their existence). Maybe our unnecessariness is what bothers us about them and makes us reference them with a word (wild) that has additional negative connotations.
Independent or dependent...you can help save the lives of animals if you go vegan.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Subverting my usual stance...
of rarely noting some "day" or other I offer this salute and recognition to one particular "day" I wholeheartedly agree with. That is the "World Vegan Day"...someday in the not too distant future I hope that ethical veganism is no more unusual that daybreak or nightfall. Since that isn't the case currently...Happy World Vegan Day!!
Remember...ethical veganism is for this small child pictured below and all the other children and all the moms and dads and sisters and brothers of all the sentient beings on our planet (including you)...ethical veganism is the recognition and affirmation and way of living that says their lives are theirs and our lives are lived in ways that respect and honor and care for them.
If you aren't living as an ethical vegan, why not? I can pretty safely assure you that if some other group of beings possessed power over us...you would desperately want them to live as ethical vegans...why not give what you would want if circumstances were different?
Finally, I saw this last graphic on the web and really liked it. We all were handed a bunch of ways of thinking and perceiving and behaving that we had no choice but to accept...but it is our job to do just exactly what Mr. Whitman is admonishing us to do. Ethical veganism is the only way of living that I know of that doesn't insult the soul.
Enjoy your day (and if you haven't already done so...quit insulting your soul and go vegan)!
Remember...ethical veganism is for this small child pictured below and all the other children and all the moms and dads and sisters and brothers of all the sentient beings on our planet (including you)...ethical veganism is the recognition and affirmation and way of living that says their lives are theirs and our lives are lived in ways that respect and honor and care for them.
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| All children of all sentient beings deserve respect and caring. |
If you aren't living as an ethical vegan, why not? I can pretty safely assure you that if some other group of beings possessed power over us...you would desperately want them to live as ethical vegans...why not give what you would want if circumstances were different?
Finally, I saw this last graphic on the web and really liked it. We all were handed a bunch of ways of thinking and perceiving and behaving that we had no choice but to accept...but it is our job to do just exactly what Mr. Whitman is admonishing us to do. Ethical veganism is the only way of living that I know of that doesn't insult the soul.
Enjoy your day (and if you haven't already done so...quit insulting your soul and go vegan)!
Monday, October 31, 2011
Backyard bunny...
The October days in central Oklahoma can be spectacular and Sunday the 29th was just one of those days. Nessie Ray routinely goes outside for a morning period and then again around 5:30 in the afternoon. This past Sunday afternoon was exquisite, absolutely no wind, temperature around 60 degrees F. and the last sunshine of the day spilling like gold over everything. The mums are blooming, there is still plenty of green grass and the dirt is soft and inviting after some recent rain.
Some photos of Nessie enjoying that afternoon.
In the above pic at the upper right you can see the terracotta bunny peeking out a bit.
The photo just above really grabbed me when I viewed it. I can easily see her age there...she isn't a youngster any longer. She has lived to the equivalent of her 50s in human years and I can easily see the weight of those lived moments in that photo of her.
There is something about the face of some rabbits that remind me of the face of an elephant...I would not find it strange at all to imagine a trunk on her face. Maybe it is the big ears, but I do think too that the big round forehead and large wide-set eyes evoke that image with me.
She behaves quite differently in the mornings versus the afternoons. Mornings are sometimes accompanied with a binky or hop and a skip, almost always with several bouts of playing chase or dancing but afternoons are mellower, usually some digging and some laying down and soaking up the sights and sounds and just existing on this planet. Being her escort on these outings is a privilege and a pleasure. She's a nifty being and having her live with us has enriched everyone.
Enjoy the pictures, enjoy your October and the rest of last days of this year...and help all the other beings enjoy theirs by going vegan.
Some photos of Nessie enjoying that afternoon.
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| Nessie looks for some tasty grass or roots. |
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| Nessie eyes the photographer. |
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| Nessie poses. |
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| Resting on the rock. |
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| Maybe my favorite shot of the afternoon. |
There is something about the face of some rabbits that remind me of the face of an elephant...I would not find it strange at all to imagine a trunk on her face. Maybe it is the big ears, but I do think too that the big round forehead and large wide-set eyes evoke that image with me.
She behaves quite differently in the mornings versus the afternoons. Mornings are sometimes accompanied with a binky or hop and a skip, almost always with several bouts of playing chase or dancing but afternoons are mellower, usually some digging and some laying down and soaking up the sights and sounds and just existing on this planet. Being her escort on these outings is a privilege and a pleasure. She's a nifty being and having her live with us has enriched everyone.
Enjoy the pictures, enjoy your October and the rest of last days of this year...and help all the other beings enjoy theirs by going vegan.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Domesticated...
I previously wrote a little about 'domestication' but it is a phenomenon that deserves quite a bit more attention. Like many summary words, domestication condenses some very complex and weighty behaviors down into just one little bit of sound and/or meaning and along the way can easily obscure and hide things that need to be examined and evaluated in order to fully understand what that summary word means.
If you look up the meaning of the term 'domesticate' at the Mirriam-Webster website, the 2nd explanation of its meaning reads: "to adapt (an animal or plant) to life in intimate association with and to the advantage of humans". Notice that there isn't any reference to this adapting having any benefit for the life form involved...the advantage is for human animals...not for the particular plant or animal. Much more often than not, this adapting includes decreasing the animals (and I'm focusing on animals in this instance) ability to survive on their own without human assistance. One of the meanings that tends to get lost when we use the word 'domesticated' is that dependency on humans is usually one of the effects involved in 'domesticating'.
If you look up the term 'wild' at that same dictionary website you will see that it is defined as: 1 a" "living in a state of nature and not ordinarily tame or domesticated" or b (1) : "growing or produced without human aid or care". In other words...not dependent on humans.
I'm deliberately focusing on the dependency issue because, for most of us human animals, our primary interaction with the other animals we share the planet with is with these particular sorts of animals that have been manipulated by us to be dependent on humans. They have been changed, through our intervention, from their pre-intervention state to a condition wherein they are quite likely to require humans to assist them to survive.
The fact is, if someone wants to know what dogs were like before humans manipulated them, they would need to go observe wolves. If you wanted to know what cats were like before humans manipulated them, you would need to go hang out with some African wildcats because those appear to be the ancestors of domesticated cats.
The notion of 'animal rights' includes the idea that the other animals on this planet have the right to live their lives however they want. The truth is, most other animals, that haven't been 'domesticated' don't hang out around us very often. No one can much blame them, given the reign of imprisonment, terror, destruction and death that is pretty much our trademark behavior whenever we encounter other animals (and often when we encounter other human animals too).
Some folks get all excited and upset when you carry out the notion of animal rights to the logical conclusion that "pets" are species that have been manipulated to be dependent on humans and as such should be allowed to live out their lives but the "breeding" of such animals should be ended. And not only those animals generally thought of as "pets" but also any of the "farmed" animals that have been manipulated to the point that they have lost their ability to survive on their own. Yep, the world as envisioned by animal rights folks would likely be a world where there were no "pets".
Something to think about...the only animal that might want to hang out with you would be one that chose to...not because he or she had to but rather that they liked you and wanted to be around you. Isn't that how those that are respectful and accepting of others relate to one another?
If you look up the meaning of the term 'domesticate' at the Mirriam-Webster website, the 2nd explanation of its meaning reads: "to adapt (an animal or plant) to life in intimate association with and to the advantage of humans". Notice that there isn't any reference to this adapting having any benefit for the life form involved...the advantage is for human animals...not for the particular plant or animal. Much more often than not, this adapting includes decreasing the animals (and I'm focusing on animals in this instance) ability to survive on their own without human assistance. One of the meanings that tends to get lost when we use the word 'domesticated' is that dependency on humans is usually one of the effects involved in 'domesticating'.
If you look up the term 'wild' at that same dictionary website you will see that it is defined as: 1 a" "living in a state of nature and not ordinarily tame or domesticated" or b (1) : "growing or produced without human aid or care". In other words...not dependent on humans.
I'm deliberately focusing on the dependency issue because, for most of us human animals, our primary interaction with the other animals we share the planet with is with these particular sorts of animals that have been manipulated by us to be dependent on humans. They have been changed, through our intervention, from their pre-intervention state to a condition wherein they are quite likely to require humans to assist them to survive.
The fact is, if someone wants to know what dogs were like before humans manipulated them, they would need to go observe wolves. If you wanted to know what cats were like before humans manipulated them, you would need to go hang out with some African wildcats because those appear to be the ancestors of domesticated cats.
The notion of 'animal rights' includes the idea that the other animals on this planet have the right to live their lives however they want. The truth is, most other animals, that haven't been 'domesticated' don't hang out around us very often. No one can much blame them, given the reign of imprisonment, terror, destruction and death that is pretty much our trademark behavior whenever we encounter other animals (and often when we encounter other human animals too).
Some folks get all excited and upset when you carry out the notion of animal rights to the logical conclusion that "pets" are species that have been manipulated to be dependent on humans and as such should be allowed to live out their lives but the "breeding" of such animals should be ended. And not only those animals generally thought of as "pets" but also any of the "farmed" animals that have been manipulated to the point that they have lost their ability to survive on their own. Yep, the world as envisioned by animal rights folks would likely be a world where there were no "pets".
Something to think about...the only animal that might want to hang out with you would be one that chose to...not because he or she had to but rather that they liked you and wanted to be around you. Isn't that how those that are respectful and accepting of others relate to one another?
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Goodbye October...
you were and are the most gorgeous month of the year here in central Oklahoma. The weather is perfect, sunflowers and goldenrod and many many other wildflowers are putting on their last burst before their winter sleep. The air is cool and crisp and the sun bright without being oppressive, the angle of sunlight makes for a golden look and feel. Exquisite.
When I went out into the field to take some shots of the golden flowers, the guard donkeys (Judy and Molly) and Midnite (the magnificent) had to come over to check out the camera and see what was going on. Their beauty contrasts nicely with the gold.
October is lovely. The sun is about about 4 months away from the furthest north it travels and the staggering heat here has finally gone away. The mornings and evenings are mellow or crisp and the days are bright and warm. Thank you nature, thank you...and thanks to Judy, Midnite and Molly for allowing me to capture their images. We are fortunate to occupy such a glorious planet with such beautiful plants and beautiful animals, lucky lucky us. It is amazing!
Thank you again, October, for being yourself.
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| Some of the gold. |
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| The purple |
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| More of the gold (the goldenrod). |
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| Midnite and Judy in the gold. |
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| Molly in the gold. |
October is lovely. The sun is about about 4 months away from the furthest north it travels and the staggering heat here has finally gone away. The mornings and evenings are mellow or crisp and the days are bright and warm. Thank you nature, thank you...and thanks to Judy, Midnite and Molly for allowing me to capture their images. We are fortunate to occupy such a glorious planet with such beautiful plants and beautiful animals, lucky lucky us. It is amazing!
Thank you again, October, for being yourself.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Still one of the saddest graphics...
...I have ever seen.
I was reminded of this bit of information recently because I ran across a story that included a photo I had not seen before. The story itself was posted with this photo:
The man crying in the photo is George Gillette: "who in 1948 was the chairman of the Mandan, Arikara, and Hidatsa tribes of North Dakota, crying because the tribes’ homeland on the fertile floodplain of the Missouri River was to be inundated by construction of the Garrison Dam." (source)
The destruction of nature is an occasion for grief, one which should bring each of us to tears...but usually doesn't. Look at the faces of the whites in the photo. They are us, jeez.
Destroying forests, flooding homelands, murdering billions of animal beings (of all types)...and so few of us cry, so few of us are filled with sorrow and grief....so much devastation and misery and suffering and death and so few tears. I sometimes struggle against a desire to climb into my bed and cover up my head and not come out again...ever.
Our ignorance is so profound that we have forgotten that what we do to nature, what we do to the other animals...we do to ourselves. Opt out of this destructive insanity, as much as you can...a big step in the right direction is to live as an ethical vegan. Become someone who feels the sorrow, not someone who causes the sorrow. If enough of us join with George Gillette and begin to feel the horror and pain of what is happening then maybe we can stop the stony faced ones who are wrecking and destroying and murdering.
The man crying in the photo is George Gillette: "who in 1948 was the chairman of the Mandan, Arikara, and Hidatsa tribes of North Dakota, crying because the tribes’ homeland on the fertile floodplain of the Missouri River was to be inundated by construction of the Garrison Dam." (source)
The destruction of nature is an occasion for grief, one which should bring each of us to tears...but usually doesn't. Look at the faces of the whites in the photo. They are us, jeez.
Destroying forests, flooding homelands, murdering billions of animal beings (of all types)...and so few of us cry, so few of us are filled with sorrow and grief....so much devastation and misery and suffering and death and so few tears. I sometimes struggle against a desire to climb into my bed and cover up my head and not come out again...ever.
Our ignorance is so profound that we have forgotten that what we do to nature, what we do to the other animals...we do to ourselves. Opt out of this destructive insanity, as much as you can...a big step in the right direction is to live as an ethical vegan. Become someone who feels the sorrow, not someone who causes the sorrow. If enough of us join with George Gillette and begin to feel the horror and pain of what is happening then maybe we can stop the stony faced ones who are wrecking and destroying and murdering.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Newer bloggers of the ethical vegan ilk are...
always a welcome addition to the arena. I noted this blog some time ago but wanted to let the infant grow a bit before being assured that ennui and circumstance wouldn't snuff it out early on. Well Kara Kapelnikova (great name!) seems to be in for the long haul and has written some energetic and excellent posts. Her most recent prompts me to suggest that you read it and explore all the posts and information she has arrayed on her site.
She calls her blog VeganRabbit which is a name that automatically elicits my admiration and approval (Nessie Ray approves too) and she lives with several bunnies as well as some other animal beings.
She writes in this post about the obligation we each have to speak up and advocate for the other animals, that it isn't enough to live as an ethical vegan, we must do more. I think this is true.
While at some future point there may be enough of us that advocacy isn't necessary from everyone, right now I think there is an obligation to spread the word and stir the pot. To tell you the truth, I don't much like it. My own preference is to go my own way and do my own thing and let everyone else do theirs...but the horrors that most of my species are inflicting on the other animal beings and on our planet don't allow me, in good conscience, to stay on the sidelines.
I agree, absolutely, with the notion that each of us has a "social obligation" (her phrase, and a good one) to advocate. It's sort of like...I don't want to be a fire fighter but when the damn house is burning down...well...you get the idea. The suffering and doomed animals don't have the luxury of much of anything and me indulging my own preference to live my own life my own way is simply...in a very real way...abandoning them to a shitstorm of misery and destruction. That's just not ok, it isn't.
I'm not out in the street shouting, although that may be necessary at some time or another, but I do my bumper stickers, I actually gave a talk to a student group about animal rights (lots of blank looks, an orator I'm not), I keep vegan pamphlets stocked at our local library (there have been over a thousand of them picked up in the past 2 years) and I agitate and bother people that I know occasionally about their eating habits, etc. I've written a few letters to the editor, it isn't much, it isn't as much as I want to do and I will do more as time progresses...but it is something and I suspect, if each person that understands that other beings have the right to their lives, would do a few things...I suspect all those folks together doing some things...all that would begin to make a difference.
The full-timers are out there, Vegan Outreach, Mercy For Animals, Farm Sanctuary, United Poultry Concerns, Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary and on and on. They are there and working hard for the world we want, but it is going to be the individuals, you and me, that actually make it happen...and I don't see a way for that to occur unless we start doing some educating and advocating and agitating ourselves...each and every one of us...for as long as it takes...and as much as it takes.
I'll make it easy for you, click on this link and it will take you to a page where you can get a free TryVeg bumper sticker...no postage, no cost, no effort beyond providing an address to send it to. Get the sticker, put it on your car and...there ya go...you're a passive activist. Thank you.
Many of the folks that read this blog do much much more, Bea and DEM and Patty and HGV and Andrew and Harry to name just a few, they do much more than I do and I salute and admire them for it. I'm addressing any of you that are doing nothing beyond living as an ethical vegan. I think we have to go beyond that...how much beyond is an individual and situational thing that will wax and wane but beyond we must go...the crap has gone on too long and it is too widespread and too entrenched. Objections must be made, information must be spread and protests must be voiced by each and every one of us. Over and over and over...until the change occurs.
My thanks to Kara for calling me out, for calling all of us out...the other animals need us, the planet needs us...now and in the future. Like she said, this isn't about personal choice, ethical veganism is about justice...it's about being in a world that isn't a grotesque death camp, it's about being in a world not controlled by murderers and destroyers, it's about making life be about life...not about exploitation and misery and suffering and death.
She calls her blog VeganRabbit which is a name that automatically elicits my admiration and approval (Nessie Ray approves too) and she lives with several bunnies as well as some other animal beings.
She writes in this post about the obligation we each have to speak up and advocate for the other animals, that it isn't enough to live as an ethical vegan, we must do more. I think this is true.
While at some future point there may be enough of us that advocacy isn't necessary from everyone, right now I think there is an obligation to spread the word and stir the pot. To tell you the truth, I don't much like it. My own preference is to go my own way and do my own thing and let everyone else do theirs...but the horrors that most of my species are inflicting on the other animal beings and on our planet don't allow me, in good conscience, to stay on the sidelines.
I agree, absolutely, with the notion that each of us has a "social obligation" (her phrase, and a good one) to advocate. It's sort of like...I don't want to be a fire fighter but when the damn house is burning down...well...you get the idea. The suffering and doomed animals don't have the luxury of much of anything and me indulging my own preference to live my own life my own way is simply...in a very real way...abandoning them to a shitstorm of misery and destruction. That's just not ok, it isn't.
I'm not out in the street shouting, although that may be necessary at some time or another, but I do my bumper stickers, I actually gave a talk to a student group about animal rights (lots of blank looks, an orator I'm not), I keep vegan pamphlets stocked at our local library (there have been over a thousand of them picked up in the past 2 years) and I agitate and bother people that I know occasionally about their eating habits, etc. I've written a few letters to the editor, it isn't much, it isn't as much as I want to do and I will do more as time progresses...but it is something and I suspect, if each person that understands that other beings have the right to their lives, would do a few things...I suspect all those folks together doing some things...all that would begin to make a difference.
The full-timers are out there, Vegan Outreach, Mercy For Animals, Farm Sanctuary, United Poultry Concerns, Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary and on and on. They are there and working hard for the world we want, but it is going to be the individuals, you and me, that actually make it happen...and I don't see a way for that to occur unless we start doing some educating and advocating and agitating ourselves...each and every one of us...for as long as it takes...and as much as it takes.
I'll make it easy for you, click on this link and it will take you to a page where you can get a free TryVeg bumper sticker...no postage, no cost, no effort beyond providing an address to send it to. Get the sticker, put it on your car and...there ya go...you're a passive activist. Thank you.
Many of the folks that read this blog do much much more, Bea and DEM and Patty and HGV and Andrew and Harry to name just a few, they do much more than I do and I salute and admire them for it. I'm addressing any of you that are doing nothing beyond living as an ethical vegan. I think we have to go beyond that...how much beyond is an individual and situational thing that will wax and wane but beyond we must go...the crap has gone on too long and it is too widespread and too entrenched. Objections must be made, information must be spread and protests must be voiced by each and every one of us. Over and over and over...until the change occurs.
My thanks to Kara for calling me out, for calling all of us out...the other animals need us, the planet needs us...now and in the future. Like she said, this isn't about personal choice, ethical veganism is about justice...it's about being in a world that isn't a grotesque death camp, it's about being in a world not controlled by murderers and destroyers, it's about making life be about life...not about exploitation and misery and suffering and death.
Friday, October 7, 2011
You animal you....
If you're reading this, and avoid classifying yourself as an animal, then take a look at this.
Now relax, if you were concerned about being considered...gasp...an animal. The above drawing is apparently inaccurate even though it was widely used in textbooks for many years. The drawing is attributed to Ernst Haeckel who was the proponent of recapitulation theory ("ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny") which claims that an individual organism's biological development, or ontogeny, parallels and summarizes its species' evolutionary development, or phylogeny. It is suggested that he fudged the above drawings to make them more closely support his theory because they aren't quite accurate. I remember being taught the recapitulation notion and thinking it was a really neat idea. Well, neat it is but accurate it isn't.
However, take a look at these illustrations of two embryos...one human, one pig.
I came across them here, and they are attributed to a medical textbook and are apparently accurate. I am presuming the one on the left is the human but since the author on the website doesn't specify (that I saw) which is which, your guess is as good as mine. If you like these guessing games, here is another one with answers included.
Nature isn't into "neat", nature is primarily interested in results, not how something looks. We are all animals, our ancestors were all subject to the same environmental and evolutionary pressures that resulted in each species of animal possessing the particular bundle of behavioral and anatomical characteristics that distinguishes them. Many of these characteristics overlap and are similar between species and some do not and aren't very similar. Nature doesn't much care how easy or difficult it is for us to identify and/or understand her workings.
But...anyone that looks around at the amazing plethora of different life forms on Earth and somehow believes we human animals aren't the product of exactly the same process that resulted in all the animals...well someone thinking like that has little evidence to support their position as well as likely having some serious reality-testing issues.
My inspiration for this post occurred because the Haeckel drawing was floating around on facebook as an illustration of how closely related all the animals are. Well, we're all closely related and while that illustration isn't particularly good evidence, take a look at this one .
Humans are sometimes born with what is called a vestigial tail as the photo above shows. I couldn't find any data on the frequency of such occurrences but for Jack Black fans there is a quirky movie (called Shallow Hal) starring he and Gwnyeth Paltrow that has a character with a vestigial tail. The movie is a little far-fetched but sort of interesting and the behavior of the vestigial tail is featured in some scenes.
You're an animal, I'm an animal, Bobby Ray (one of the cat beings that resides with me) is an animal...we're all animals...so let's just all get along...and to do that we human animals have to live as ethical vegans. That's really not so tough...and...being vegan makes us much better at being able to be neighborly to our fellow animals.
However, take a look at these illustrations of two embryos...one human, one pig.
Nature isn't into "neat", nature is primarily interested in results, not how something looks. We are all animals, our ancestors were all subject to the same environmental and evolutionary pressures that resulted in each species of animal possessing the particular bundle of behavioral and anatomical characteristics that distinguishes them. Many of these characteristics overlap and are similar between species and some do not and aren't very similar. Nature doesn't much care how easy or difficult it is for us to identify and/or understand her workings.
But...anyone that looks around at the amazing plethora of different life forms on Earth and somehow believes we human animals aren't the product of exactly the same process that resulted in all the animals...well someone thinking like that has little evidence to support their position as well as likely having some serious reality-testing issues.
My inspiration for this post occurred because the Haeckel drawing was floating around on facebook as an illustration of how closely related all the animals are. Well, we're all closely related and while that illustration isn't particularly good evidence, take a look at this one .
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| Human soft tissue tail. |
You're an animal, I'm an animal, Bobby Ray (one of the cat beings that resides with me) is an animal...we're all animals...so let's just all get along...and to do that we human animals have to live as ethical vegans. That's really not so tough...and...being vegan makes us much better at being able to be neighborly to our fellow animals.
Monday, October 3, 2011
I'm currently reading a book titled:
Original Wisdom by Robert Wolff. The author also maintains a modest web presence and on that site I found the following writing that resonated fairly strongly with me.
We seem to be on some mad power trip that is insatiable and when we encounter a difficulty we attempt to overcome that difficulty by applying more power and control.
Many years ago I ran across Sheldon Kopp's Eschatological Laundry List and was struck by the wisdom in many of its formulations especially the one that says: "We must learn the power of living with our helplessness." I sometimes think that much of western culture is an avoidance of and a denial of that truth. And the denial has made us monstrous.
At the heart of the concept of animal rights is the notion that living and letting live is a pretty good guide to how to behave. We seem to have a lot of trouble with leaving the other beings to themselves. We're big on the idea of control...and we can see where that has gotten us.
...As I age I feel more and more obsessed by simple. Doing without rather than getting more. One of my favorite authors, Ursula K. LeGuin, writes "Owning is owing; having is hoarding." Very true, very wise.The author isn't writing from an animal rights perspective but rather about ways of living and being that human animals once embraced but have now (for the most part) moved away from or lost. We seem to have destroyed some critical connection to our planet and her other beings and the stories in this book attempt to describe some of what we have lost.
The human world is not simple. The world we made is a tangled disaster of rules and regulations forcing us to be what we were not born to be. We may think we can but we cannot own this planet. We are as much part of the planetary ecology as a virus or a tree. What we call civilization is a top down system designed to acquire always more. Obviously impossible. We invented power we can no longer control. And with that power we abuse and destroy this planet, our only home. Poisoning its precious soil, the water, the air all humans need to live. Our destructions are eradicating thousands of species; gone forever. An impoverishment we cannot restore. Mother Earth needs to be honored and nurtured -- today it seems we cannot stop (trying to) control...
We seem to be on some mad power trip that is insatiable and when we encounter a difficulty we attempt to overcome that difficulty by applying more power and control.
Many years ago I ran across Sheldon Kopp's Eschatological Laundry List and was struck by the wisdom in many of its formulations especially the one that says: "We must learn the power of living with our helplessness." I sometimes think that much of western culture is an avoidance of and a denial of that truth. And the denial has made us monstrous.
At the heart of the concept of animal rights is the notion that living and letting live is a pretty good guide to how to behave. We seem to have a lot of trouble with leaving the other beings to themselves. We're big on the idea of control...and we can see where that has gotten us.
Friday, September 30, 2011
A few photos found on facebook...
 | |
| Mundane horror... |
 |
| More mundane horror. |
 |
| ???? |
In a poem, Ralph W. Emerson once wrote: "Things are in the saddle and ride mankind...". Observing the kinds of behaviors we direct toward those we perceive to be "different" makes it difficult to believe that whatever impels human animals to behave as they do comes from outside themselves...we, ourselves, seem to be the "things in the saddle".
Last pic...
To be their voice you must live as an ethical vegan, that's just the way it is.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
An obvious conclusion ignored...
In the well done movie Contagion , currently playing in theaters, we are given a look at a potentially deadly problem. The ending presents an obvious conclusion and solution. This conclusion and solution is apparently eluding reviewers and probably most audience members too.
It is serendipitous that I attended this movie right after the previous post. Once again in a movie we are presented with violence toward animals that is ignored and invisibled but in this movie we are given the clear and compelling information that killing and then handling the corpses of the murdered animals is inviting diseases to jump from the victims to the murderers. The whole movie is about the devastation waiting to happen when a viral organism present in another species mutates and begins making the rounds in the human species.
The movie clearly and openly shows this fact yet not a single review that I have read of the movie including ones in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Boston Globe or by multiple reviewers referenced at RottenTomatoes.com points out the obvious and that is converting to an ethical vegan lifestyle would preclude many if not almost all of such disease transmission.
It is estimated that around 60% of all human infectious diseases and around 75% of all emerging infectious diseases originate in other animals and then are passed directly to humans or mutate and acquire the ability to infect humans. For instance AIDS is believed to have originated in chimpanzees.
Want to reduce or eliminate disease transmission between species...leave the animals alone to live their lives...quit imprisoning them, quit killing them, quit cutting them up and eating them.
Live as an ethical vegan, a compellingly obvious conclusion once you see this movie but apparently nothing is too obvious for culturally induced blindness to make invisible and....based on my sampling of the movie reviews so far...not one sees the obvious.
Go see the movie, it is fairly well done even if mildly shallow and 1950ish feeling, and see if you are able to spot the obvious.
It is serendipitous that I attended this movie right after the previous post. Once again in a movie we are presented with violence toward animals that is ignored and invisibled but in this movie we are given the clear and compelling information that killing and then handling the corpses of the murdered animals is inviting diseases to jump from the victims to the murderers. The whole movie is about the devastation waiting to happen when a viral organism present in another species mutates and begins making the rounds in the human species.
The movie clearly and openly shows this fact yet not a single review that I have read of the movie including ones in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Boston Globe or by multiple reviewers referenced at RottenTomatoes.com points out the obvious and that is converting to an ethical vegan lifestyle would preclude many if not almost all of such disease transmission.
It is estimated that around 60% of all human infectious diseases and around 75% of all emerging infectious diseases originate in other animals and then are passed directly to humans or mutate and acquire the ability to infect humans. For instance AIDS is believed to have originated in chimpanzees.
Want to reduce or eliminate disease transmission between species...leave the animals alone to live their lives...quit imprisoning them, quit killing them, quit cutting them up and eating them.
Live as an ethical vegan, a compellingly obvious conclusion once you see this movie but apparently nothing is too obvious for culturally induced blindness to make invisible and....based on my sampling of the movie reviews so far...not one sees the obvious.
Go see the movie, it is fairly well done even if mildly shallow and 1950ish feeling, and see if you are able to spot the obvious.
Monday, September 19, 2011
The Pledge is a movie...
that I have watched several times. I have a tendency to review or reread (sometimes multiple times) books or movies that resonate with me. For instance, Thelma and Louise is a movie that stuns me each time I see it and I have watched it multiple times. Ridley Scott, the director of Thelma and Louise was one of the first to place a female human into the role of 'hero' of a movie way back in his scary as hell classic Alien. I remember thinking the first time I saw Alien that it was a phenomenal movie and went around hustling friends of mine to go see it. Starman is another movie that knocks me out each time I revisit it although the homage paid to human beings by the alien character played by Jeff Bridges at the end of the movie is a little syrupy and too not true...I wish the makers of the movie had been courageous enough to be more truthful and accurate.
The Pledge is a good movie that is well made and acted with a number of talented folks in it including Jack Nicholson, Helen Mirren, Vanessa Redgrave, Harry Dean Stanton, Sam Shepard and others. Directed by Sean Penn, the movie is about a retired policeman's focus and near obsession on the identification and pursuit and capture of a human that is killing small blond female human children.
This movie is not, by the way, one of the movies I place in a special category I have (Thelma and Louise for instance). This category for books or movies is made up of those that I can return to repeatedly and each time extract something new or can be reminded of some enduring near or actual universal about life or living or nature or something. Either that or they are comedies that extract humor in some way that is timeless to me. Many of Laurel and Hardy's short comedies are in this latter group. The Pledge doesn't quite make it to this classic category although it is a fairly good movie.
I say each time I can extract something new or be reminded of a truthful thing, this might occur because I notice or understand something that had eluded me before or...something new might be apprehended or understood because I have changed since the last time I read or saw this particular work. Of course something like this can happen with any book or movie or artwork or music that is experienced more than once, but some creations are much more pleasant or interesting or thought or feeling provoking when indulged in repeatedly than others.
What was so powerfully apparent to me as I rewatched The Pledge was how much my perceptions had changed since I last saw this movie. Shortly after the beginning is a scene that almost short-circuited my mind as I watched. In it we see Nicholson looking grim after having notified parents that their young child has been murdered, we also see the parents collapsing in grief and anguish. What is absolutely amazing and astonishing in this terrible scene are the thousands of babies surrounding the human characters.
The distraught parents are turkey 'farmers' and they were in a turkey 'barn' when notified of their daughter's death by Nicholson's character. These are people who "make a living" by taking baby turkeys away from their parents and imprisoning them in conditions akin to a concentration camp and once the babies reach a given age they then have these babies killed. And they are anguished, destroyed, grief-stricken by the fact that their baby was killed.
This scene, to me, exemplifies the profound schizoid, psychotic like, ignoring and dismissing of elements of reality that characterizes aspects of our culture involving other animals. The horrors these human animal parents engage in as a matter of routine are ignored...not mentioned...not even a whisper and the whole focus is on the anguish and grief and discomfort of the human animals in the scene. The thousands of babies, terrified and lost and facing a certain horrible death instigated by these wounded human parents, serve as nothing but an ignored and dismissed noisy backdrop of feathered children crying in anguish for their parents. I simply was stunned as I watched thousands of victims, thousands of small feathered children...fearful and doomed...relegated to invisibility and the death of one child, one human child presented as if it were the only significant loss and tragedy while all around a multitude of small spirits wailed and asked that their existence and anguish be acknowledged and alleviated.
This ongoing invisibling of our animal sisters and brothers is ubiquitous, "normal" and omnipresent. I see and hear instances of it constantly, everyday and in everyway. From the ignored bodies of animals killed by automobiles laying unmourned and unacknowledged beside the roadway to the "humorous" representations of cows in commercials telling us to "eat more chickin". We are awash in this invisibling and diminishing of the importance of the lives of those beings that don't look or act or sound like human animals. We swim in it, we breath it and our animal relatives are being killed by the billions, their deaths facilitated by these incessant cultural sermons about the nothingness of the meaning of their lives.
I remember clearly the consternation and confusion and upset and ridicule that accompanied the protestations and objections to racist portrayals of humans that weren't white Europeans. I remember clearly the same sorts of consternations, confusions, upsets and ridiculing that were evoked by protestations and objections to sexist portrayals of humans that weren't male. This still occurs, the battle goes on...objections continue to be raised....ridiculing and dismissals still happen. No cultural wars are won completely and often need to be fought over and over...ignorance and oppression and exploitation and reality avoidance are mighty foes and they never give up and they never go away. They have to be challenged and resisted again and again...anywhere they occur.
I would like to think that the director of this movie and the author of the novella on which it was based were aware of the irony in the scene depicted, that they were making an astute and subtle observation about the narrowness and limitations of our compassions and awarenesses. Whether they were or not, scenes like these must be noticed, commented on and discussed. The herculean task of facilitating awareness of and care for the lives of all beings requires that this happen...but for it to happen common cultural presentations must be clearly recognized for what they are and consciously acknowledged and challenged.
It is incumbent upon all to be willing to be thought of as a crank, as peculiar, as silly, as 'too sensitive', as 'dumb', as whatever...for objecting...but I think that we must again and again object to and challenge cultural messages that minimize, hide, ignore or glorify the infliction of suffering and death on my brother and sister animals...no matter what those messages are, no matter how silly it might seem to be to protest...protest we must. Again and again and again. The messages of ignoring and of invisibling are multiple and incessant and the objections to the billions of hidden and not so hidden tragedies must also be incessant.
If you aren't living as an ethical vegan...why not?. If you are living as an ethical vegan...time to think about how you are going to expand to others the awareness and compassion you have achieved and after deciding how you want to act...then act. Our sister and brother animals need us and they have been without acknowledgement and recognition and consideration for way too long.
As a for instance, I recently discovered that our local city council keeps track of letters to the editor published in our local newspaper about topics the council is interested in. Writing to your local newspaper is an avenue available to most all and using that venue to promote a change in cultural concepts can help in consciousness raising. Every voice is important, every single one...including yours. Recently I managed (astonishingly enough!) to get a letter published locally pointing out the cruelty of 'dairy' and of the hideous ways cows and their babies are treated. We need to make heard the voices decrying injury to or exploitation of sentient beings...the voices of misery and suffering and death have prevailed for way too long.
The Pledge is a good movie that is well made and acted with a number of talented folks in it including Jack Nicholson, Helen Mirren, Vanessa Redgrave, Harry Dean Stanton, Sam Shepard and others. Directed by Sean Penn, the movie is about a retired policeman's focus and near obsession on the identification and pursuit and capture of a human that is killing small blond female human children.
This movie is not, by the way, one of the movies I place in a special category I have (Thelma and Louise for instance). This category for books or movies is made up of those that I can return to repeatedly and each time extract something new or can be reminded of some enduring near or actual universal about life or living or nature or something. Either that or they are comedies that extract humor in some way that is timeless to me. Many of Laurel and Hardy's short comedies are in this latter group. The Pledge doesn't quite make it to this classic category although it is a fairly good movie.
I say each time I can extract something new or be reminded of a truthful thing, this might occur because I notice or understand something that had eluded me before or...something new might be apprehended or understood because I have changed since the last time I read or saw this particular work. Of course something like this can happen with any book or movie or artwork or music that is experienced more than once, but some creations are much more pleasant or interesting or thought or feeling provoking when indulged in repeatedly than others.
What was so powerfully apparent to me as I rewatched The Pledge was how much my perceptions had changed since I last saw this movie. Shortly after the beginning is a scene that almost short-circuited my mind as I watched. In it we see Nicholson looking grim after having notified parents that their young child has been murdered, we also see the parents collapsing in grief and anguish. What is absolutely amazing and astonishing in this terrible scene are the thousands of babies surrounding the human characters.
 |
| The background of the scene is populated by thousands of baby turkeys. |
This scene, to me, exemplifies the profound schizoid, psychotic like, ignoring and dismissing of elements of reality that characterizes aspects of our culture involving other animals. The horrors these human animal parents engage in as a matter of routine are ignored...not mentioned...not even a whisper and the whole focus is on the anguish and grief and discomfort of the human animals in the scene. The thousands of babies, terrified and lost and facing a certain horrible death instigated by these wounded human parents, serve as nothing but an ignored and dismissed noisy backdrop of feathered children crying in anguish for their parents. I simply was stunned as I watched thousands of victims, thousands of small feathered children...fearful and doomed...relegated to invisibility and the death of one child, one human child presented as if it were the only significant loss and tragedy while all around a multitude of small spirits wailed and asked that their existence and anguish be acknowledged and alleviated.
This ongoing invisibling of our animal sisters and brothers is ubiquitous, "normal" and omnipresent. I see and hear instances of it constantly, everyday and in everyway. From the ignored bodies of animals killed by automobiles laying unmourned and unacknowledged beside the roadway to the "humorous" representations of cows in commercials telling us to "eat more chickin". We are awash in this invisibling and diminishing of the importance of the lives of those beings that don't look or act or sound like human animals. We swim in it, we breath it and our animal relatives are being killed by the billions, their deaths facilitated by these incessant cultural sermons about the nothingness of the meaning of their lives.
I remember clearly the consternation and confusion and upset and ridicule that accompanied the protestations and objections to racist portrayals of humans that weren't white Europeans. I remember clearly the same sorts of consternations, confusions, upsets and ridiculing that were evoked by protestations and objections to sexist portrayals of humans that weren't male. This still occurs, the battle goes on...objections continue to be raised....ridiculing and dismissals still happen. No cultural wars are won completely and often need to be fought over and over...ignorance and oppression and exploitation and reality avoidance are mighty foes and they never give up and they never go away. They have to be challenged and resisted again and again...anywhere they occur.
I would like to think that the director of this movie and the author of the novella on which it was based were aware of the irony in the scene depicted, that they were making an astute and subtle observation about the narrowness and limitations of our compassions and awarenesses. Whether they were or not, scenes like these must be noticed, commented on and discussed. The herculean task of facilitating awareness of and care for the lives of all beings requires that this happen...but for it to happen common cultural presentations must be clearly recognized for what they are and consciously acknowledged and challenged.
It is incumbent upon all to be willing to be thought of as a crank, as peculiar, as silly, as 'too sensitive', as 'dumb', as whatever...for objecting...but I think that we must again and again object to and challenge cultural messages that minimize, hide, ignore or glorify the infliction of suffering and death on my brother and sister animals...no matter what those messages are, no matter how silly it might seem to be to protest...protest we must. Again and again and again. The messages of ignoring and of invisibling are multiple and incessant and the objections to the billions of hidden and not so hidden tragedies must also be incessant.
If you aren't living as an ethical vegan...why not?. If you are living as an ethical vegan...time to think about how you are going to expand to others the awareness and compassion you have achieved and after deciding how you want to act...then act. Our sister and brother animals need us and they have been without acknowledgement and recognition and consideration for way too long.
As a for instance, I recently discovered that our local city council keeps track of letters to the editor published in our local newspaper about topics the council is interested in. Writing to your local newspaper is an avenue available to most all and using that venue to promote a change in cultural concepts can help in consciousness raising. Every voice is important, every single one...including yours. Recently I managed (astonishingly enough!) to get a letter published locally pointing out the cruelty of 'dairy' and of the hideous ways cows and their babies are treated. We need to make heard the voices decrying injury to or exploitation of sentient beings...the voices of misery and suffering and death have prevailed for way too long.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Quinn (the Mighty)...
is a major cutie. His fur coat is grey with some brownish highlights and sort of fluffy so that he looks a little scruffy even when he isn't. Quinn's name was inspired by the Manfred Mann song "Quinn the Eskimo" which was written by the genius Bob Dylan.
Quinn came to Heartland Rabbit Rescue back in August as a result of a call from a local municipal shelter. It seems that Quinn's time had run out and he was at risk of execution because no human family wanted him. The Heartland Director squeezed and squoshed and managed to find a place for Quinn even though Heartland is way over capacity.
He was picked up running the streets and we don't know how or why...no one claimed him at the municipal facility and a kind, caring worker there gave Heartland a call and made a plea for him. His is just a baby, maybe a couple of months old.
At first he didn't much want anything to do with humans, but has now figured out that human animals can act pretty decently and he is becoming one of those rare bunnies that endures being carried around, even seeming to actually enjoy it. His personality is maybe 5 or 6 times larger than his physical being (he's a fairly small guy, only a couple of pounds right now) with energy to burn.
At the time of this writing he is having to stay inside his enclosure for a few days because his recent surgery (neutering). Once recovery is far enough along, he'll be going everywhere again with all the life and joy anyone could wish for. Quinn is a real treat to be around, one of those folks that makes you smile when you see him. It is astonishing how much niftiness mother nature can pack into a small package.
I'm writing about Quinn because he is a pleasure worth sharing and because Quinn represents all the many millions of "domesticated" Earthlings that are without a human family to call their own. Quinn could be a poster child for adopting, never ever ever purchasing from a "breeder". Too too many of our brother and sister Earthlings don't have homes.
I helped out with an adoption event recently for a local cat rescue group, Hands Helping Paws, and 28 lucky kittens and cats found homes. Hooray!
Bunnies are a little bit different. They are a little more vulnerable, a little more requiring of some education for proper care and a little more needful of a particular mindset if a good fit is going to be made between a family or human and a bunny. Maybe part of the problem is that the stereotypes of popular culture (for instance, the Easter Bunny) and the reality of rabbit behavior don't match up too well. Suffice it to say that most of us (me included) have to put in some time, effort, attention and learning in order to be in a position to be able to offer adequate care to a rabbit.
This means an adoption event like the one for the kittens would probably not work for the bunnies...oh you might get a number of bunnies into homes, the cute factor for a bunny is off the charts...but the likelihood is high that bunnies would be placed at risk for inadequate care and humans placed at risk for disappointment and upset and failure. These factors mean that bunnies finding a home that works is a fairly intricate and involved operation. Compared to a cat or a dog, a bunny is more 'high maintenance'...not too difficult once you get used to it and care becomes routinized...but definitely different than most humans are familiar with or used to. Which means that learning and change has to happen and that is sometimes tough for humans to accomplish.
Quinn is now safe, Quinn is now loved and Quinn will grow and develop. That's pretty good.
You can do your part in helping make all animals safer and more likely to grow and develop if you live as an ethical vegan. And, for goodness sake, adopt one of the Earthlings without a human family from a shelter...if you can....if you can't then volunteer or donate and help out a shelter or a rescue operation...remember...they are trying to repair or stop the damage we have done to the animals. They are trying to clean up and rectify part of the mess the rest of us have made for living beings on our planet...that's a pretty good thing to do.
Quinn came to Heartland Rabbit Rescue back in August as a result of a call from a local municipal shelter. It seems that Quinn's time had run out and he was at risk of execution because no human family wanted him. The Heartland Director squeezed and squoshed and managed to find a place for Quinn even though Heartland is way over capacity.
 |
| Quinn (the Mighty Quinn) |
At first he didn't much want anything to do with humans, but has now figured out that human animals can act pretty decently and he is becoming one of those rare bunnies that endures being carried around, even seeming to actually enjoy it. His personality is maybe 5 or 6 times larger than his physical being (he's a fairly small guy, only a couple of pounds right now) with energy to burn.
At the time of this writing he is having to stay inside his enclosure for a few days because his recent surgery (neutering). Once recovery is far enough along, he'll be going everywhere again with all the life and joy anyone could wish for. Quinn is a real treat to be around, one of those folks that makes you smile when you see him. It is astonishing how much niftiness mother nature can pack into a small package.
I'm writing about Quinn because he is a pleasure worth sharing and because Quinn represents all the many millions of "domesticated" Earthlings that are without a human family to call their own. Quinn could be a poster child for adopting, never ever ever purchasing from a "breeder". Too too many of our brother and sister Earthlings don't have homes.
I helped out with an adoption event recently for a local cat rescue group, Hands Helping Paws, and 28 lucky kittens and cats found homes. Hooray!
Bunnies are a little bit different. They are a little more vulnerable, a little more requiring of some education for proper care and a little more needful of a particular mindset if a good fit is going to be made between a family or human and a bunny. Maybe part of the problem is that the stereotypes of popular culture (for instance, the Easter Bunny) and the reality of rabbit behavior don't match up too well. Suffice it to say that most of us (me included) have to put in some time, effort, attention and learning in order to be in a position to be able to offer adequate care to a rabbit.
This means an adoption event like the one for the kittens would probably not work for the bunnies...oh you might get a number of bunnies into homes, the cute factor for a bunny is off the charts...but the likelihood is high that bunnies would be placed at risk for inadequate care and humans placed at risk for disappointment and upset and failure. These factors mean that bunnies finding a home that works is a fairly intricate and involved operation. Compared to a cat or a dog, a bunny is more 'high maintenance'...not too difficult once you get used to it and care becomes routinized...but definitely different than most humans are familiar with or used to. Which means that learning and change has to happen and that is sometimes tough for humans to accomplish.
Quinn is now safe, Quinn is now loved and Quinn will grow and develop. That's pretty good.
You can do your part in helping make all animals safer and more likely to grow and develop if you live as an ethical vegan. And, for goodness sake, adopt one of the Earthlings without a human family from a shelter...if you can....if you can't then volunteer or donate and help out a shelter or a rescue operation...remember...they are trying to repair or stop the damage we have done to the animals. They are trying to clean up and rectify part of the mess the rest of us have made for living beings on our planet...that's a pretty good thing to do.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
When regrets outnumber hopes...
...so the saying goes, then you are old.
I'm old.
I have something like 5,326 regrets and only a few hopes. My regrets are too numerous to specify and I only have one hope that I choose to share.
I hope enough humans begin living as ethical vegans in time to prevent the transformation of this planet into a poisoned desert surrounded by polluted seas populated only by human animals and those few sorts of sentient beings that human animals believe profitable to exploit and kill.
We behave despicably and have done so for thousands of years, my hope is that we stop and the only way to begin to stop is to live as an ethical vegan.
We must begin to acknowledge and embrace the natural world that we are part of and live as good and just members of that community. We must relinquish our childish and willful view of the planet and everything on it as a "resource".
We must.
Not because it is the only thing that will save us (even though it is) but because we have no right to destroy the other beings on this planet or to destroy the environments which those other beings need to survive. I commend Gary Yourofsky and his excellent video where he talks about this evilness in which we are engaged.
The terrible thing is, my hope is...in fact...our only hope.
I'm old.
I have something like 5,326 regrets and only a few hopes. My regrets are too numerous to specify and I only have one hope that I choose to share.
I hope enough humans begin living as ethical vegans in time to prevent the transformation of this planet into a poisoned desert surrounded by polluted seas populated only by human animals and those few sorts of sentient beings that human animals believe profitable to exploit and kill.
We behave despicably and have done so for thousands of years, my hope is that we stop and the only way to begin to stop is to live as an ethical vegan.
We must begin to acknowledge and embrace the natural world that we are part of and live as good and just members of that community. We must relinquish our childish and willful view of the planet and everything on it as a "resource".
We must.
Not because it is the only thing that will save us (even though it is) but because we have no right to destroy the other beings on this planet or to destroy the environments which those other beings need to survive. I commend Gary Yourofsky and his excellent video where he talks about this evilness in which we are engaged.
The terrible thing is, my hope is...in fact...our only hope.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
All of us animals...
is a phrase that sometimes offends or upsets those humans who are ignorant about their own origin and makeup. "Animal" is a word that carries a lot of human social and psychological weight, most of it negative. Earlier I wrote about the fact that the constituents of our DNA are the same for all inhabitants of the planet Earth, no matter what sort of living being we happen to be called. I wrote: "You, me, crabgrass, cockroaches, George Washington...we all share the same four bases for our DNA...the only difference between any of us is the nature of the arrangement."
This fact is sadly not very widely known or promoted. I wonder why?
Testosterone and estrogen are hormones associated respectively with males and females. Actually all males have estrogen in their systems and all females have testosterone in their system, it is the ratio of the hormones that is associated with female and male characteristics. Most folks are vaguely aware of the connection of female - estrogen and male - testosterone though.
Those two hormones are present in some degree in the bodies of all mammals (and some reptiles, birds and insects) that call the planet Earth home. Those two hormones exert some influence on the functioning of all mammals (including human animals) living on this planet.
According to Wikipedia: "Mammals share the same reproductive system, including the regulatory hypothalamic system that releases gonadotropin releasing hormone in pulses, the pituitary that secretes follicle stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone, and the ovary itself releases sex hormones including estrogens and progesterone."
Way back in elementary school you were all told (at least I hope you were) that humans belong to the group of animals called mammals. If you weren't told this, then you were lied to either by omission, commission or neglect.
I'll bet you weren't told this: "Living mammal species can be identified by the presence of sweat glands, including those that are specialized to produce milk." Hmmm, one way to identify a mammal is whether they have sweat glands (and milk is produced by a specialized sweat gland). Puts a new perspective on "dairy" doesn't it.
I am an animal, if you're reading this...you are an animal. We are all animals. Let us all live like good citizen animals of our planet and be ethical vegans...that minimizes the damage we do to our fellow animals and to our planet.
This fact is sadly not very widely known or promoted. I wonder why?
Testosterone and estrogen are hormones associated respectively with males and females. Actually all males have estrogen in their systems and all females have testosterone in their system, it is the ratio of the hormones that is associated with female and male characteristics. Most folks are vaguely aware of the connection of female - estrogen and male - testosterone though.
Those two hormones are present in some degree in the bodies of all mammals (and some reptiles, birds and insects) that call the planet Earth home. Those two hormones exert some influence on the functioning of all mammals (including human animals) living on this planet.
According to Wikipedia: "Mammals share the same reproductive system, including the regulatory hypothalamic system that releases gonadotropin releasing hormone in pulses, the pituitary that secretes follicle stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone, and the ovary itself releases sex hormones including estrogens and progesterone."
Way back in elementary school you were all told (at least I hope you were) that humans belong to the group of animals called mammals. If you weren't told this, then you were lied to either by omission, commission or neglect.
I'll bet you weren't told this: "Living mammal species can be identified by the presence of sweat glands, including those that are specialized to produce milk." Hmmm, one way to identify a mammal is whether they have sweat glands (and milk is produced by a specialized sweat gland). Puts a new perspective on "dairy" doesn't it.
I am an animal, if you're reading this...you are an animal. We are all animals. Let us all live like good citizen animals of our planet and be ethical vegans...that minimizes the damage we do to our fellow animals and to our planet.
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